Houston Nuttcase is at it again, generating terrible publicity for the UofA with the Memphis C/A article on Sunday about Michael Coe. Of course, Nuttsack knows nothing about the furor in which Coe says that a UA coach or coaches deliberately spread rumors about him and downgraded his 40 times and bench press #'s to screw up his NFL draft chances. His HS coach in Cordova, TN is livid.

For those who constantly whine that printing anything negative about coaches impacts recruiting, I say pull your head out and smell the coffee. Nutt has negatively impacted recruiting with his lies and broken promises and used car salesman tactics worse than his enemies ever could. The guy keeps digging the hole ever deeper. Once his enabler is gone at the end of the year, the next guy might not be as receptive to getting his @$$ kissed.

Well, Hog fans, we finally have a new roundball coach after being turned down by everybody this side of James Naismith. I was never enthused about Billy Gillispie, friends from the Big XXII have told me he coaches a Big 10 half court style. Not what we need, especially since we need to put butts in all those empty seats.

Then, we got a scare when it was reported that John Calamary, the squid-like Tiger High coach of Memphis STATE was offered the job. Thank goodness he didn't want it. The guy is a crook, leaving behind a major play for pay scandal at UMass. The guy was caught red-handed giving $$$ to Marcus Camby and skipped town ahead of the posse by going to the NBA for 3-4 years. It never made sense to me that a coach can do that and come back with no sanctions, just like nothing happened.

Dana Altman is not the spectacular hire many had hoped for (Pitino?) but those guys didn't want the job and Altman proclaimed a desire to press 40 minutes a game. Uptempo basketball is back! Altman is a good hire, taking Creighton to the Big Dance 9 times in 13 seasons. Yes, his record is 2-7, but Nolan was 0-5 before 1989, and one of Altman's wins was over Florida and Eddie Munster. Who's NOT going to Kentucky in my opinion, no matter how much the Cats offer.

So it's sayanara to the Stan Heath era. I have to say I was a bit surprised and thought Stan would and should get another year with the stipulation that he win 25 or more games next season with at least an SEC West title and get to the Sweet 16 or better.

Now Broyles is screwing up the search for a replacement with his old style tactics. If he didn't have Gillispie or a big time coach in the bag, he never should have fired Heath. Now he looks like even more of a boob for giving Nuttcase a big bonus. The soap opera on the Hill continues.

With The Hogs' date with USC still a day away, it's time to weigh in on the other things going on in the Natural State. The whole trailer thing with FEMA is beyond absurd. During the 90's it was popular in some circles to say that Clinton had not done anything for Arkansas, but I'll guarantee that if he was still in the WH and James Lee Witt was FEMA Director, Dumas would have been declared a disaster area and FEMA would have been on the scene PDQ. It literally took an act of Congress to get the Feds off their duffs to get the trailers from Hope to Dumas after they had been rusting for months.

Add to that Bud Cummins getting axed as US Attorney for not investigating enough Democrats or investigating too many Republicans, take your pick. Oh yes, the Bush Admin. has done so much for the State!

Friday's the big day. If the Hogs want to prove Vitale, Phelps and Packer are full of it (and they are) the best way to do so is to win. Blow USC out. Pink Floyd is a vastly over-rated Coach. Now, that doesn't mean he isn't capable of out coaching us, but I doubt that USC has the size to match up with the Hogs frontline. Go Hogs!

When contacted by the Demozette, Dookie V quickly backed away from his earlier comments about the Hogs making it into the NCAA tournament being an "outrage". Typical of a blowhard. Diclie's darling, Drexel got beat in the NIT tonight by the way. The Hogs should have a Nolan-size chip on their shoulders by the time the game rolls around with all the self-appointed experts bashing them for getting into the field.

Dick Vitale is a Jackass! The "Dookie V." nickname put on him fits for his love of Coach K and all things Duke (yuck!). His man crushes on Slick Rick Pitino and John Calamary are enough to make a person want to throw up. For this blowhard carnival barker to say that our Hogs don't belong in the Big Dance shows his ignorance of SEC basketball and really any basketball outside the Big East, ACC and the wrestling matches that pass for roundball in the Big 10. If he and Digger Phelps could coach a lick they would still be doing so.

Bobby Knight's whining because Vitale isn't in the basketball Hall of Fame is equally disgusting. Knight only wants him there because Vitale has been shilling for Knight for years. Dookie V always has an excuse for his buddy's latest psycho behavior whether it's throwing a chair across the floor or verbally assaulting the President of Texas Tech. What a phony Vitale is. It is only fitting that he is pitching fertilizer in a full page ad in today's USA Today.

If he really wants to find a school that doesn't deserve to be in the field, he should look no further than Stanford or Texas Tech. I know the Hogs lost to TT early in the season, but look at the Hogs' RPI and strength of schedule compared to some of the others. Dookie's darling Drexel had a schedule ranked #131 compared to the Hogs #10. Let them play in the SEC and see if they could be 24-8. No Way!!!

All good things come to an end, and so it was with the Hogs SEC tourney run with the loss to Florida today. Playing 4 games in as many days is tough enough, but to have to knock off the National Champs, who hadn't been extended in the previous 2 games....It was just too much to ask. So it's on to Spokane, WA for a date with USC. We owe them one, or actually a couple. Go Hogs, it was still a productive week.

If this team plays like they did the first 3 days, the Hogs will have a chance to move in to a 2nd round game with ....TEXAS. Better to play them in Spokane than Austin, like earlier in the season. For this team to wake up as late as they did, a lot was accomplished in a short time.

Give Stan heath another year, idf he doesn't win BIG next year.....

This whole business of FEMA and the Dumas tornado continues to amaze. The area was devastated by the recent twister and with all those FEMA trailers sitting unused at Hope....It's unbelievable that it took so long for the Feds to act. Under this administration, FEMA, along with several other agencies has gone completely down the toilet. Bush is this country's greatest disaster since Lyndon Johnson or Tricky Dick.

The Hogs are in! The NCAA Tournament, I mean. Win or lose tomorrow vs Florida, there is no way the Hogs will not be selected for the field of 65. That was some defensive performance today, especially in the 2nd half. The defense was stifling. Rhodes and Gordon of MissStake couldn't throw it in the ocean, and those two are most of their offense.

Tomorrow, Go Hogs in the SEC Championship game, but win or lose the ticket to the Big Dance has been punched.

How about those Hogs! Stan may save his job after all. I have changed my mind about firing him, but caution is called for. I don't know if his contract should be extended, but should get another year, and if the 08 edition doesn't have a great season with all those Srs, it will be time to make a move. Every year it seems the Hogs start 1-3 in the SEC, digging a hole they can't seem to get out of. What a game! I can't complain about Ervin, at least until tomorrow.

How about that Tom Brady? Father of, not one, but TWO children due next summer according to Glamurama.com. His Model main squeeze, Gisele Bundschen is due not long after his ex Bridget Moynihan. I'll bet Bill Bilichick wishes Brady would leave his "Patriot Missile" in the Silo!

Good job Hogs! With their 82-52 thrashing of South Carolina today, the Hogs keep hope alive as far as getting in the field of 65. With a win over Vandy tomorrow, many think that will be enough to get in. I don't know, but with a loss, our chances are very slim of getting our dance card punched. The best thing about a win like this is it gave the starters a chance to rest and the Hogs got the first game jitters out of their system. I suspect after what happened last Saturday, that Vanderbilt will be ready, they'd better be if the right Hog team shows up. If Vandy doesn't pressure the ball better than they did in the first game the result will be similar I predict. Go Hogs!

Some serious cracks are starting to show in W's once solid support in the Natural State. This firing of Bud Cummins and the other 6 US Attorneys with Cummins among the ones testifying before Congress that they were fired for strictly political reasons should finish Bush off in the stas.te except for a few true believers. Cummins was popular among state Republicans. With the conviction of Scooter Libby and this growing scandal and now this, stick a fork in Bush, he's done. He won't be impeached, just neutered.

What with all the talk about Houston Nutt and his near-miss in the plane the other day (Houston Nutt and objects flying through the air just don't mix, doncha know?), the Hog Roundballers and their 11th hour attempt to get in the NCAA tournament has been overshadowed.

Steven Hill must not be superstitious or he wouldn't have cut his hair with a 2 game winning streak on the line. The first time the Hogs have won 2 in a row in SEC play. I think the pony tail looked better, myself. Oh well, it's his hair.

Anyway, in my opinion, we must win 3 games in the SEC/T to get in, 2 might do it, but don't hold your breath. USC and Vandy are winnable games, don't know who would be next, but all games are losable if the wrong team shows up.

Will he or won't he? Stan Heath I mean. Will he and the Razorback BBall team win at least 3 games in the SEC tournament this week to get into the NCAA's? I figure that's what it will take and that might not be enough. Word on the hill is that Heath must get his team in the "Big Dance" to save his job. I don't know for sure that is right, but suspect it is. The silence was deafening from the administration when asked to comment on Stan's status a week or so ago.

As everyone in the State of Arkansas knows by now, Frank Broyles, the most powerful man in the State, is retiring at the end of the year. The big question is: who will the new AD be and will it strictly be John White's call? Football fans in particular better hope not. That pointy head would like nothing better than to appoint some milquetoast anti-athletic type just to show his (White's) authority.

Also how will this affect the State's leading politician Houston Nutt? You know, the guy who would never approach anything head on when he can talk in circles and approach it from some odd angle. We can hope for a buy-out of his contract, but I doubt that it happens, at least until after the season. Nuttcase will win just enough games to save his job, then repeat the cycle again next season. Nutt has to hope the new AD has a nice, soft, kissable ass, so he can continue to do what he does best.

Is everyone else as sick of mud-slinging, character-assasin negative campaign ads as I am? To me, if a candidate can't tell me why I should vote for him or her instead of myriad reasons why I shouldn't vote for the other: "my opponent molested a sheep in 1977" or "tell Jim Billy Farkleberry ta' quit tearin' them tags off his mistresses, I mean mattresses, 'cause that don't represent ------- (name state) values", I tune out most of the rest of the message. Candidates should run on their own merits or lack thereof. In most cases, I can see compare and contrast, but the whole barrage of ads not even mentioning their own candidate and focusing entirely on their opponent are what turn so many people off to the political process to the point that they don't even vote and thus the candidate who wins is voted in by only a small percentage of the overall population, but his or her boneheaded decisions affect all.